The present invention relates to a system for restricting the use of an apparatus to be leased to a borrower or user. Depending on conditions or terms of the lease, it may be desired that some functions of the leased apparatus, for example, a measuring apparatus, be made inoperative. The system of the present invention can restrict the functions of a leased measuring apparatus.
Usually, when apparatuses, such as a measuring apparatus, are leased, terms or conditions for the lease are stated in a written contract. Because there is no physical connection between the written conditions and the leased apparatus, the written conditions cannot physically restrict the use or functions of the leased apparatus. As a result, the user can intentionally or unintentionally use the apparatus beyond the contracted conditions, which results in the contract being broken.
It is desirable for the leased apparatus to be used only within the written conditions of the lease, so that the lender can manage the leasing satisfactorily.
According to the present invention, conditions for leasing a measuring apparatus in a written contract are set in the apparatus itself, and the apparatus is provided with, for example, a function to display that, for example, the term for leasing is going to expire or has expired, and a function to make part or all of the functions of the apparatus inoperative. According to the present invention, the lease conditions can be set in the apparatus via a separate condition entering apparatus, such as a computer.
The measuring apparatus can include a use-restricting condition setting section for setting at least one condition for restricting the use of the apparatus. The apparatus also can include a monitoring section which monitors the use of the apparatus and produces a restricting condition fulfillment signal when a predetermined number of the restricting conditions have been fulfilled. A function restricting section of the apparatus is responsive to the restricting condition fulfillment signal to output restricting condition fulfillment representative information and/or to disable at least part of the functions of the measuring apparatus to thereby physically make the measuring apparatus inoperative.
The restricting condition fulfillment representative information may be outputted as visual information, in the form of characters and graphics, or as sound information. The functions which may be disabled include the measuring function. In this case, when part of the functions of the measuring apparatus is disabled, the measuring apparatus may not perform its own function.
When a predetermined number of restricting conditions preset in the apparatus have been met during the use of the measuring apparatus, fulfillment information is output and/or one or more functions of the apparatus are disabled.
A warning condition setting unit may be additionally provided, which enters warning conditions corresponding to the respective restricting conditions into the measuring apparatus. The warning conditions are easier to be met than the restricting conditions. When the monitoring section determines that a predetermined number of the warning conditions have been fulfilled, it produces a warning signal. A warning section is responsive to the warning signal to output warning information in a visual form, e.g. as characters and/or graphics, or in an audio form.
According to the present invention, the measuring apparatus fulfills a predetermined number of warning conditions before fulfilling the restricting conditions, and the warning information is output to warn the user that the restricting conditions will be fulfilled soon.
The system may further include a margin deriving section which compares the current state of use of the measuring apparatus being monitored by the monitoring section with respective ones of the corresponding use-restricting conditions set by the use-restricting condition setting section and provides information indicating the margin left until the use-restricting conditions are fulfilled. The system may also include a margin output section for outputting the margin indicative information as visual information in the form of, e.g. characters and/or graphics, and/or as audio information.
The system with this feature can provide the user with information about the margin for using the leased apparatus until the use-restricting conditions are fulfilled.
The restricting condition setting section may set one or both of the contracted terms of lease during which the user is permitted to use the leased measuring apparatus and the contracted maximum number of times the user is permitted to use the leased apparatus. When the term of lease is set in the measuring apparatus, the monitoring section measures the time from the start of the use of the leased apparatus and provides a condition fulfillment signal when the set term has expired. If the set condition is the number of times permitted for the user to use the measuring apparatus, the monitoring section monitors the number of times the apparatus has been used and produces the condition fulfillment signal when the apparatus has been used the set maximum number of times.
If both the term and the maximum number of times are set, the monitoring section monitors both the time from the start of use and the number of times the apparatus has been used and produces the restriction condition fulfillment signal when either the time or the number of times the measuring apparatus has been used reaches the set value.
Thus, when the contracted term permitted for the user to use the measuring apparatus expires or when the measuring apparatus has been used the contracted maximum number of times, that fact is transmitted to the user or the leased measuring apparatus is made inoperative.